Being in the Moment: Some Ideas to Help You Achieve It!

I recently have been working hard on being in the moment. Sounds easy, right? Everyone is in a moment, but are you really focusing and experiencing what is actually happening?

It seems like these days, everyone is taking a picture, checking their e-mail (on their phones), checking social media (on their phones), planning ahead (what’s for dinner tonight? Next week?, What are we doing tomorrow night, etc.). It is common that people are planning and stressing over things that are possibly going to happen in the future, and then they never do. You spent all that time stressing, when it never even happened!

I am the first to admit, I am guilty of this. I have been slowly working hard on to change this. Here are some things I am doing:

Turn off e-mail and Facebook (any social media) notifications.

Take Facebook (any social media) completely off your phone if needed.

Set certain times to check your e-mail and/or Facebook (any social media).

Set a time you will put away your phone for the night. Leave it in a different room, so you are not tempted.

You may not even realize it, but if you work at doing the following things above, it will eliminate a lot of anxiety and stress. Electronics create so much anxiety, it’s crazy to think what our society was like without them. We need to remember that e-mails, messages, tweets, Instagram messages …. do not need to be responded to ASAP. We have all of a sudden decided it is necessary to respond to everything as quickly as possible. It’s an emergency, it will be known. People will pick up the phone and call.

As part of working to be in the moment, I have started to learn mindfulness and/or meditation. I take that back, I have taken a meditation class and tried hard to meditate daily and I didn’t follow through so well 🙁 I was introduced to some guided mindfulness exercises, which I have found to be much easier for me to use daily. These were the ones introduced to me:

My favorite is the UCLA. I downloaded it straight to my phone and can access it at anytime. I try to do it 2-3 times a day; morning, afternoon and evening. I like to be guided and some people do not. It definitely is a personal choice. I enjoy the guidance, because it keeps me focused on what I am doing. It’s important to remember, that your mind WILL wander to your laundry list of things to do and that is NORMAL.

I think it is important for every human, wife, mother, husband, father … to do this. Everyone gets caught up with life and we forget to enjoy what is happening NOW. I have discovered this to be even more important, after having two children, staying home, and blogging. It is a struggle to balance all these things. Following the suggestions above and practicing mindfulness, is making everything a bit better 🙂